


Dr. Ziegler, P.I.

by Papallion



Series: Keep it Together - Collected Sigma Fics [5]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Original Character(s), Side Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28509495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papallion/pseuds/Papallion
Summary: Angela needs help removing something from Sigma’s weird brain.  She finds a clue and follows it to the creator of the implants.
Series: Keep it Together - Collected Sigma Fics [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864225
Kudos: 4





	Dr. Ziegler, P.I.

Angela sat at her desk, flipping through the scans and x-rays and impressions.

Siebren’s brain was still a mystery to her. How he still functioned was beyond her reasoning! His brain was missing sections, and the voids contained odd matter and energy readings. When he was hooked up to a scanner she could see new neural pathways and energy signatures forming and reforming. It seemed that in the past they were avoiding and routing around the implants, but was that possible?

Now that the three devices Talon had plugged into his brain were reactivated they were disrupting what thought patterns he had, leaving him vulnerable and susceptible to manipulation. His brain was no longer rerouting and instead was becoming docile, and she sighed as she looked at her research. 

She could easily remove the plate she had replaced the dome with, remove the devices, and sew him back up, but could she do it without damaging him or disrupting what matter he had left? This was beyond her skills and she knew it. 

As she dropped her head to her desk with an upset groan she knocked her tablet aside. The new 3D image popped up, and she idly prodded at it. She and Winston had reimaged Siebren’s skull that afternoon, and the images had finally been rendered.

The image spun, and she spotted something. Angela sat up and rotated the image to examine the bottom of the implant, squinting at the serial number at the bottom. She had always assumed the items to be custom made, so why would they have a serial number? 

Angela quickly checked the other renders, and held her hand up, absentmindedly gesturing at one of Athena’s cameras as if beckoning for attention. “Athena, Athena, I need you! These renders, do you see them?”

“Yes, Angela, I see them,” Athena said in her even voice. She brought the renders up on a new screen.

“Please, can you read those serial numbers?” Angela asked.

“Unfortunately, no. We would need to adjust the position of the implants to see them clearer. I do notice a repeating pattern on all three parts, however.” 

Angela nodded, looking at the odd blob shape. “What can you, what is the word I want, compare them and get an estimate of them?”

“I can extrapolate an image, yes.” Athena layered the images, shifted them a few times, and presented four samples. “I cannot tell if each one has a different image at this time.”

“That’s a logo. I know that logo.” Angela tapped her temples. It was an elongated skull in profile, with some form of design on the side of it. “Can you image search for it, please? And put it on the main server? I’d like to see if anyone recognizes it. I know I’ve seen it before, I saw it on base!”

“It is done with a quiet alert. And we have a response from Agent Junkrat!” Athena said, and Angela could pick up a hint of surprise in the A.I.’s voice.

“Junkrat?” She picked up her tablet. He must have been awake, drinking tea and looking at chemical reactions on YouTube again. “That’s Xombi’s sign, from Torso, saw them three years ago in Mexico.” Angela thanked Junkrat then checked the logo Athena brought up for her.

It was an elongated Peruvian skull with an Incan face on it, a half-circle face with a half-circle headdress over it.

Xombi, gender neutral lead guitarist and growler for the Peruvian metal band Torso, real name unknown, was a narrow form with a grey mo-hawk and black eyes with golden rims. They were dressed in leather pants and vest, with a vivid sash and a tight, white t-shirt. Angela brought the fan page up and spotted the logo.

“Why do I know a Peruvian metal head?” she mused, and groaned. “Why do I know Torso? I know this person!”

“Lena plays their music,” Athena offered. “You liked the song ‘Seahorse.’” Athena played the opening of the song in English.

Angela did like the song. “Taken away, taken away, locked in glass and put on display,” she sang absently. The song was about child trafficking and while it depressed her, she loved how fast and angry it was. She returned to the renders, looking for clues. “Wait, Athena, what’s this?”

“By overlaying all three renders and adjusting for common letters, certain patterns formed. All three had the word ‘grand’ on them.”

“Grand,” Angela murmured. She looked at the guitarist again. “What’s Xombi got to do with this? Zombie? Shombi? How do you say that?”

“According to interviews with the band it is ‘Zombie.’” Athena played a few clips of a variety of people saying the name. Most pronounced it with a Z or a hard S sound, but only one, a softly Spanish accented voice, said Shombi.

“So, why are you called Xombi?” a male voice heard.

“because im dead and do things to brains,’ the husky voice answered.

“She does things to brains.” Angela’s eyes lit up. “Grandi,” she hissed. 

Nadia Grandi was a neurologist and master of the brain, supposedly dead for ten years, and here was their name on an item in the head of a dead man. Angela remembered the inhibitor device Nadia crafted. It had successfully prevented seizures in a patient, but was never implemented long term for fear of side effects. Angela was certain that if she could find the specs for it, she could use that knowledge to help Siebren.

“Bring me up a picture of Doctor Nadia Grandi, please, and compare it to Xombi.”

Athena did so, rotating the faces. 

Nadia Grandi was a brown skinned person with dark brown eyes, charcoal black hair pulled into a bun at the nape of their neck, and proud Peruvian nose and full lips. The picture was decades old, however. They looked like how Angela remembered them.

Xombi was a brown skinned person with black sclera and golden iris, a common fashion trend among modern musicians. They bore the same powerful nose and full lips, and Xombi had large golden-rimmed jade plugs in their ears. They also had leg braces and forearm crutches decorated with vividly colored straps.

“Facial features match,” Athena noted.

“Nadia Grandi, step-daughter of Edmund Grandi, also a neurologist.” Angela looked at the family photo of the Grandis. 

Edmund was a massive white man, and his wife, Elena, was Nadia’s mother. Edmund’s son from his first marriage stood between them, and Nadia and Mayra, Elena’s daughters from her first marriage, stood on either side. Between them was their youngest, Rosemary. 

“Nadia Grandi would be almost sixty years old now,” Angela mused. Xombi did not look much older than fifty. She chewed on her thumbnail for a moment as she thought. 

“Could it be Rosemary?” she mused out loud.

“No, Rosemary has her father’s nose.” Athena brought up a modern picture of Rosemary Grandi, now fifty. She did, indeed, have a narrow nose.

“There must be some way to connect them.” Angela brought up Torso’s fan site again, and spotted something. “Last concert, they were in Mexico,” she muttered. “Concert for Mexico City’s children, guest starring Clown Fucker Dwayne of Street Runner. Wait, wait, Lúcio mentioned Dwayne.” Angela looked up Street Runner just to check, and noticed they referenced working with Lúcio behind the scenes. “Can’t hurt to try!” 

She hauled her sweater on as she bolted through the hallways, and she pounded on Lúcio’s door. Angela heard blurry Portuguise then the door opened. 

“Angie?” Lúcio asked, eyes hardly focusing.

“I need to talk to Clown Fucker Dwayne,” she demanded.

“Clown... you mean Dwayne Lowe?” Lúcio had a mighty confusion.

“Is Angie allowed to swear?” Baptiste muttered.

“What’s she need?” Genji asked from the bed. “It’s four in the morning!”

“Clown Fucker Dwayne worked with Torso, a Peruvian metal band,” Angela explained.

Lúcio nodded at her.

“The lead guitarist of Torso is Xombi.”

Lúcio continued to nod.

“I am ninety percent certain Xombi is Nadia Grandi, a neurologist.”

Lúcio rubbed his eyes.

“Grandi invented a neural inhibitor designed to prevent seizures and electric imbalances in the brain.”

Lúcio nodded again and yawned.

“And their prototype was stolen over ten years ago and implanted into Siebren’s head.”

Lúcio’s eyes snapped open and he took Angela by the hand.

“The devices are malfunctioning after his concussion, and I don’t have the, oh, hello Genji,” she said as Lúcio hauled her into the room. “And I don’t have the know-how to remove them properly due to all of the, the weirdness in his head. Hello, Baptiste, I’m sorry to disturb you all. But Grandi is a brilliant neurologist, and I know they can help me.”

Lúcio pulled a small laptop off a shelf and powered it up. “How is the big guy?”

Angela eyed the ‘work it, ribbit’ sticker on the laptop. “I’m keeping him sedated for now. Winston is sitting with him, Rein’s resting. If he wakes up the inhibitors activate and cause him pain.” She sat down on the bed next to Lúcio, and Genji simply rolled over.

Everyone ignored Baptiste as he groaned about the light.

Lúcio typed, then nodded. “OK, webcam’s on.” He rubbed his eyes and yawned as the screen popped to life.

“Lú! What’s happening, bro?” a cheerful Black man asked. He was obviously on his phone, sitting in a fast food joint with kitsch on the walls.

“Hey, Dwayne!” Lúcio said. “Is Xombi around?”

Angela took the laptop and turned it towards her. “I need to speak to Nadia Grandi! Someone’s life is in danger!”

“What?” Dwayne was rightfully confused. “Who’s the blonde?”

“I’m Angela Ziegler. Siebrun de Kuiper is under my care. He has implants in his brain that are malfunctioning, they were made by Nadia Grandi. I can’t remove them on my own, and I need their advice.” She watched Dwayne’s face change from confusion to acceptance.

“It’s for you, Dead Thing.”

The phone moved across the table, and focused on a brown face with shimmering biotic eyes and shining grey hair.

‘i heard both of my names,’ Nadia Grandi said in their crushed-leaf voice. They rivaled Jack for huskiness. ‘whats all this?’

Angela was gently nudged from the bed and Lúcio lay back down. She sat on the lounge chair and tucked her feet up, then repeated her delima. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to find you so quickly.”

‘Dwaynes my buddy, we hang out,’ Nadia explained. ‘oh, refresh me?’ they asked and handed their cup to someone who was getting up. ‘this is exciting. lets get our food to go, and get to the lab. Aggie, can you get my crutches?’

“How soon can you make it here? I can send Tracer with a jet.” Angela knew Winston would easily agree to such an expense, anything to save his uncle.

‘were not too far, if youre in Gibraltar?’ Nadia asked, and leaned forward. ‘it shouldnt take us long to get there. im curious, ill admit.’

Angela nodded. “But one of the devices needs out as soon as possible. Two are dormant,” she started to explain, and paused when Nadia choked on a fry. “I need your help to remove it.”

“THREE?” Their voice cracked in an unnatural fashion, and Angela wondered what damage had been done to their vocal chords. ‘three. i made four prototypes, and they put three in one head?’ Their voice continued to crack in rage and disbelief as they fumbled the phone. ‘Dwayne, drive me home, i need to walk Ziegler through a process. well be home in about twenty minutes.’

“Where are you? I’m sorry to interrupt your meal.”

Nadia was already standing, a stiff, rigid motion due to leg braces. “Wales. just having a midnight snack with my boys. once we get back home ill load Barber and walk you through removing the implant. prep your patient, heres my number, call me in thirty.’

Angela quickly wrote down a cell phone number and felt a weight lift from her shoulders. “I appreciate it,” Angela said in relief. “I’ll get him ready.” She shut the laptop and put it back on the shelf. “Thank you, Lúcio! Sorry, Genji. Sorry, Baptiste.”

Genji gurgled something in Japanese and Lúcio waved her away, and Angela let herself out.


End file.
